Reno Finds Press Corps Tougher Than She Thought

OTHER NEWS TO NOTE - WASHINGTON

July 3, 1993

Attorney General Janet Reno thought she knew what she was in for when she confronted the Washington press corps, given her 15 years in the hot seat as the top prosecutor in Miami. But even Reno - the daughter of two reporters, the granddaughter of a photojournalist, the niece of a music critic and the sister of a columnist - was taken aback April 19, the day the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Texas, went up in flames. The press corps that day looked to her like ''a bunch of hungry wolves,'' she told an overflow crowd at the National Press Club on Thursday. 'Their questions came fast, furious, angry,'' she said. ''Their faces were angry as they pounded the questions at me.'' But after a while, she said, she saw a change. ''There was understanding, there was sensitivity, there was support, there was encouragement.'' She said she wants to be open with the news media and might even give reporters her home phone number, but not because it will make her more accessible. ''I've about discovered that it wouldn't do any good anyway, because I'm not there.''